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Meek’s Cutoff

Feature Film | USA 2010 | 104' | Subtitled

Oregon, A.D. 1845. A group of settlers is on the westward trek in covered wagons. But their hired guide seems to have lost his way. As the water supply slowly runs out, tensions in the group are mounting. Horses, guns, and a prairie landscape as far as the eye can see – at first glance, MEEK’S CUTOFF comes across as a Western. But director Kelly Reichardt (WENDY AND LUCY) does not go down the well-trodden path of the genre: She opts for slowly building up suspense instead of leaping into action, and puts her faith not in hyper-virile, John Wayne style heroes, but in the intelligence of women – chief among them Michelle Williams, who plays the role of a pragmatic settler. However, Reichardt’s choice of aspect ratio is a classic one indeed: 1.33:1 – the format of early John Ford oaters. Reichardt collaborated on the screenplay with Jonathan Ramond, who also co-wrote the script for MILDRED PIERCE with Todd Haynes.